Artist's Statement

Growing up in the 1960s, it was an expectation in my family that girls were to be the picture of pristine femininity, wearing crisp matching clothes, having impeccably coiffed hair, and demonstrating the ability to cook and sew. School textbooks reinforced these expectations through imagery and narrative. My ceramic sculptures focus on gender roles through the motif of three dimensional dresses and accessories. The dresses are around thirty inches tall and have image laden surfaces that tell a story. This narrative is layered, at once looking perhaps nostalgic and delicate while at the same time critiquing the expectations of the 1960s, suggesting that women are more than that. Further, these are dresses. There are not figures inside because women's identity at the time was often erased or dismissed. They became a "Mrs." and lost their names. 
 
The dresses are hollow forms that stand on their own, generally with a strong sense of movement as though there is a ghost of a body inside. The pieces are cut into and sometimes include sprig molding on the outside. Surfaces are engraved and then fired with underglazes, glaze and sometimes encaustic. The imagery tells a story and wraps around the dress. I invite the viewer to elaborate on and question the tale they encounter on the surface. Rain boots and clutches are among the accessories in this exhibit. These are from hand made plaster molds of thrift store purchases which are then slip cast and glazed.
 
Articles of clothing have qualities that I seek to embrace in my work. A dress or purse can speak to the personality of the wearer. I intend for these sculptures to hint at those personalities and relay stories that we remember.

Artist's Background

Brenda Jones is a contemporary sculptor who lives and works in South Fork, CO. She grew up in southeast Kansas in the 1960s and her work pays homage to the gender roles imbedded in that time period and rural American place. Her sculptures are typically ceramic dress forms with narrative imagery on the surface that appears nostalgic and delicate while at the same time critiquing traditional women’s roles or expectations. Jones states, “I tell stories in my work and I invite you to interpret these on various levels as you take the visual journey.”
 
As an elementary school student, she found it lucky to be able to trade her drawings in school for answers to homework and continued her interest in art in high school where she was mentored by a Japanese art teacher. Taking advice from her teacher, she earned a Bachelor’s of Art Education at Wichita State University as well as a Master’s of Art in Art History and Ceramics. She has taught these subjects in both Kansas and Colorado.
 
Jones’ artwork has been shown in exhibits across the U.S. She has won best of show in several exhibits and has receives scholarships to study at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Anderson Ranch in Aspen, and Fulbright travel studies to Argentina and Japan. Most recently she was a short term ceramics resident at Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana. 

More information is available at BrendaJonesArt.weebly.com.